Latest News, WVPA Sharing

Manchin supports bump stock ban, background checks on gun sales

By JAKE ZUCKERMAN

Charleston Gazette-Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Thursday he would support a proposal banning a product that can modify semi-automatic rifles to fire at rates comparable to fully automatic firearms.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

In the days since a man fired a rifle equipped with a “bump stock” Sunday night from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel, killing 58 and leaving nearly 500 others wounded and injured, some members of Congress have leaned toward banning the accessory.

Bump stocks replace factory-issued gun stocks and use the recoil energy from a gunshot to rapidly depress a rifle’s trigger at a much faster rate than one’s finger can. The attachment can increase the rate of fire of a semi-automatic rifle, which fires one round per trigger pull, to one much closer to a fully automatic one, which will fire repeatedly as long as the trigger is depressed. With limited exceptions, civilians may not legally own fully automatic rifles.

West Virginia’s lone Democrat at the federal level, Manchin said it makes sense to him that, if bump stocks, which he was unfamiliar with before the attacks, transform a semi-automatic rifle into something like a fully automatic one, they shouldn’t be on the market.

“If it’s not allowed, to sell a product of that nature [fully automatic rifles], then to modify a product to be of the same thing should be in the same category,” he said. “It shouldn’t be able to be done.”

He said that, in talking to people around Capitol Hill, he thinks there could be bipartisan support to ban the accessory. However, he said, whenever legislation sounds like common sense, powerful resistance will find a way to blindside it.

Later in the day, the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful gun advocacy organizations in the United States, and the White House signaled they would support banning bump stocks.

“In Las Vegas, reports indicate that certain devices were used to modify the firearms involved,” the NRA said in a statement Thursday. “Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives [ATF] to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law. The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.”

Likewise, in a news briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said members of both parties and other organizations are looking into legislation regarding the legality of bump stocks, and the executive branch could be open to it.

Ashley Berrang, a spokeswoman for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Capito thinks the issue is worth visiting.

“As details from Sunday’s shooting have emerged, it is clear that we need to have hearings on bump stocks,” she said. “These devices convert legal firearms into illegal automatic weapons, and Senator Capito believes the ATF should reconsider the legality of these devices.”

Outside of bump stocks, Manchin said he wouldn’t support other proposals fellow Democrats have offered in the past, such as a ban on assault rifles or a ban on high-capacity magazines.

With both, he said rifles have many legitimate uses, whether for hunting, leisure or sport, and different owners have different preferences. He said that, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked for his support on an assault rifle ban, he likened it to regulating vehicles.

“I said, ‘Dianne, it’s no different than cars,’ ” he said. “There’s people buying cars, it has 160 miles per hour on the speedometer, the speed limit is usually an average of 70 around the country. I just assume you’re going to do something illegal with that car. People can make their decisions. What’s legal is legal. You should be able to buy it, and as a law-abiding gun owner, I don’t think you’re going to do anything wrong with it.”

However, Manchin said he still is pushing for legislation he sponsored in 2013 with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would, among other provisions, require sellers in online ads or at gun shows to conduct background checks before selling any firearms.

He said he thinks anyone with no criminal record should be allowed to purchase firearms, but criminals or anyone with a history of mental illness, as noted by a court, should not be able to.

When asked if Manchin plans to re-introduce the bill within the next calendar year, his spokesman said it will depend on if he can round up any more Republican support for it.

In just over a year, Manchin is likely to be up for re-election against one of two pro-gun Republican candidates.

Manchin has found himself in hot water regarding guns before. Despite receiving an “A” rating from the NRA in 2012, the association targeted him with attack ads after he introduced his background check bill with Toomey.

Reach Jake Zuckerman at [email protected], 304-348-4814 or follow @jake_zuckerman on Twitter.

See more from the Charleston Gazette-Mail

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

And get our latest content in your inbox

Invalid email address